February 4, 2012

The [sexual assault] complaint lodged against [quarterback Patrick] Witt was part of a new system for dealing with sexual-assault accusations at Yale. The school put the system in place at least partly in response to an investigation by the Department of Education stemming from allegations in early 2011 that Yale maintains a campus atmosphere hostile to women. Under the new system, the Times reported, Mr. Witt's accuser chose to file an informal complaint, which does not involve a full investigation or a finding of guilt or innocence....

It doesn't mention the race of the athlete involved. If he's black, it's another example of the racial paranoia that black people in this country are subject to. If he's white, it's another example of how arrogant, overbearing jocks, especially those from elite schools, feel entitled to inflict themselves on women. I sincerely hope that the disciplinary authorities have not muddled their stereotypes.

This is of a piece with the little boy who gets expelled from school for making a gun barrel of his finger and going "bang". Our society is being feminized, to the great detriment of all the things that men excel in, things that are necessary for a successful society.

"In fairness to Yale, they are giving male students adequate warning that Yale is a hostile environment to men. Any prospective male student that voluntarily chooses Yale, by default, acknowledges the risk of such an occurrence and should accept the destructive outcome as an appropriate element of their experience at Yale." http://tinyurl.com/74qp383

It seems like I'm constantly hearing stories and complaints about communities/schools/whatevers that are clearly liberal, enlightened, well-educated, east coasters who certainly pride themselves on being far more progressive than flyover country being hostile to women in ways that are completely unfamiliar to me in my buckle of the bible belt red state.

Where is Yale's board of governors in all this mess? Who exactly is running the show at Yale that lets something like this happen with no further review?

In terms of corporate PR, Yale seems to rank up there with other PR giants like the Susan G. Kommen foundation.

I can't believe that Yale isn't getting donations rescinded even as we speak. And if you were some wealthy legacy, would you send your son knowing that one pissed-off girlfriend could wreck his career?

I read that article last week in the Times and thought at the time it was an awful smear job. And I don't even like or follow football, I just happened to see it because it was lying in front of me on the kitchen table when I came home. It was all innuendo - no details about the accusation, sly references to his parents' habit of moving him from school to school to improve his footbal career, etc. They made it sound like he lied about his reasons for dropping out of the Rhodes scholar interview. In fact, he said he was going to play in the football game. He wasn't going to his interview. The sports writers at the time all inferred that he dropped the interview because he wanted to play football that day, instead. And horror of horrors - he didn't correct their misperception! (How would he do that after they already printed them? Why would he even bother with all the other mess that's going on around him right now.) If a reporter twists every little detail to seem nefarious, then it's hard to take them seriously about the bigger accusation. The Times really isn't worth the paper it's printed on anymore.